The decision by the Turnpike Commission Tuesday to hike tolls for the seventh year in a row means the cash toll to drive from the Ohio border to the New Jersey border will be $46.05 for passenger cars, up from the current $43.85

Pennsylvania Turnpike drivers can expect another toll increase of at least 3 percent next January, and continuing annual increases for years to come, turnpike CEO Mark Compton said Thursday.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Airport Corridor Transportation Association, Mr. Compton said the state’s new transportation funding law has shortened, but not eliminated, the turnpike’s requirement to pay $450 million a year to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Instead of continuing to 2057, the required payments will end after 2022, he said. Toll increases are needed to underwrite the debt incurred by the turnpike in making those payments.

In the past, PennDOT has directed $200 million from each payment to non-turnpike highway projects and $250 million to mass transit. The new law directs all of the $450 million to transit.

The $155 million will pay for widening and reconstructing about four miles of the turnpike in Bristol Township where the connection with I-95 will be built. It will also pay for building three new turnpike bridges and installing the piers for the “flyover” ramps for the connection.

When the first stage of the direct connection is completed in 2018, I-95 will be rerouted onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike east of the connection and then onto the New Jersey Turnpike. The current I-95 north of the connection will be redesignated as I-195.

Drivers paying in cash will see a 12-percent rate increase, while E-ZPass users will incur a more palatable 2-percent hike as the commission tries to encourage drivers to use the more efficient electronic option to traverse the toll road.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is moving ahead with plans to convert to an all-electronic toll collection system by 2018, an inevitable nod to technology that will improve the situation for motorists.

Once fully implemented, the 545-mile turnpike’s 76 tollbooths will be a thing of the past. Vehicles would maintain normal highway speeds as they pass under overhead stanchions equipped with electronic readers, which is what happens now in some E-ZPass lanes.

It’s one of the basic lessons of economics, and the same principle can be applied to tolls, as the Pennsylvania Turnpike is finding out.

Motorists using the turnpike will face their fifth toll increase in as many years when rates climbed by 10 percent for cash-paying customers (2 percent for those using EZ-Pass) on Sunday.

A recent investigation by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review examined how those increases have affected truck traffic on the highway — suggesting that the higher tolls have caused trucks to divert onto local roads in western Pennsylvania instead of using the turnpike:

Required by a 2007 state law to provide billions of dollars for statewide road and bridge repairs and transit operations, the turnpike is spending more money each year than it makes, despite toll increases that have doubled the cost to travel the turnpike over the last 10 years.

To meet the financial demands created by the law, Act 44, turnpike officials have borrowed aggressively, leaving the agency deeper in debt each year.

The Turnpike Commission is now more than $7 billion in debt, up from $2 billion in 2002 and $4 billion in 2009. The burden continues to grow, with the turnpike required to make payments until 2057.

The commission says the increase means rates will be going up 10 percent for cash-paying customers and 2-percent for those who pay with E-ZPass. The agency says the hike will result in a toll-revenue growth of 3 percent.

E-ZPass car tolls will rise from $8 to $9.50, cash tolls will rise from $8 to $12. This is for peak-time. By 2015, the E-ZPass car toll will be $12 and the cash toll will be $15.

Single-fare PATH train rates will increase .25 cents per year, over the next four years.

These increases are lower than initially proposed. Both governors took credit for intervening on the side of the consumer.

The Port Authority has cut staffing to the lowest level in decades and made other improvements to cut costs. However, both governors have called for an audit of the Port Authority citing fiscal mismanagement as the primary reason for the increases. Overtime is out of control.

None of the nine appointed commissioners would speak with the press at the end of this morning’s hearing on the higher tolls. One commissioner had his eyes closed during most of the meeting. Always a nice touch, to show the public how deeply you care, when a commissioner sleeps through a public hearing.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is raising tolls 10 percent for cash paying customers in 2012. The increase does not apply to E-Zpass customers. Tolls increased in 2011 as well, 10 percent for cash payers and 3 percent for E-Zpass users.

This is the Turnpike Commissions way of gently urging everyone to use E-Zpass…

This is JUST unbelievable. In an effort to “save money” our illustrious PA Turnpike Commission has voted to not print toll prices on tickets. So starting next month, you won’t have any idea how much the tolls are unless you have them memorized!

Say you get on the turnpike at Morgantown and get off at Breezewood… no where on your ticket will the price be printed. And we are supposed to “trust” that what ever amount some tells us is due is correct????? WTH!

PA Auditor General Jack Wagner said he is appalled and feels this is bad judgement. We AGREE 100%!!!!! I think this opens the door for abuse!

These losers at the Turnpike Commission are raising the prices 10% for cash customers and 3% for E-ZPass users. So we are paying more and getting less!

Like State Store employees, PA Turnpike Toll Collectors have an uncertain future. There is a proposal to make the Pennsylvania Turnpike all-electronic. E-ZPass transponders and cameras may make humans obsolete on the turnpike.